Sunday, February 12, 2012

A man's best friend or foe?

Hey friends, how have you been? First of all I would like to explain my extended leave of absence from the blog, as I was travelling and just returned Friday night. I just went down to Karachi for a week to see my parents and also to attend a distant cousin's wedding. She was very close to me at one time. But this time I was shocked to see the change in her. She has actually started wearing hijab because her to-be husband wanted her to do that. She did not even seem to mind, because she thinks that her husband is opening a door for her in heaven, since he will definitely be going there himself. The wedding was extremely simple, with no extravagant rituals, which is the norm in a typical Pakistani wedding. No music, no dancing, no nothing. Apparently, my cousin's in-laws think that it is a sin to perform any such ritual in a wedding, and that a wedding should be performed as per the Sunnah.

I found it a little difficult to adjust in Karachi this time, and I just felt like packing my bags and flying back home every day. It is not easy to pretend being a Muslim among so many staunch and practising Muslims, but thankfully, I am not a very bad actress, even if I may say so myself. I carried out the act pretty convincingly. I even used to lay down the prayer mat on the floor and sit on it while humming a song to myself. LOL. Oh boy, I am so glad to be back to my normal life where I can be myself and of course back to writing my blog.

Ever since I gave up Islam and became an apostate, my life is pretty simple, easy and enjoyable. I mean I can drink with friends without feeling guilty and I can have a normal love life without the fear of eternal hell fire. On one side, this cannot make up for the time lost, but at least I can make the most of what I have, the remaining few years of my life. I am not sure whether there is an eternal life or not, and perhaps this could be the only life that I ever get. That is why I want to be happy, as happy as I could get. I have lived enough in depression, guilt and fear.

This evening, while I was having a stroll in the park, I ran into my good old Australian neighbors, a very delightful couple in their late 50's who were out with their dog for his daily walk. The last time I had bumped into them, I was a bit averse to dogs. Even though I had given up Islam few months ago, still I could not make myself touch a dog, I was just too paranoid. But today, I had this sudden urge to bend down and pat him, and I whispered into his ears, "I am sorry, Benny, I am so sorry for the way I have always treated you and hated you for no fault of yours". I felt sick to my stomach thinking how could I have hated such a lovely and friendly little animal just because some psychopath lunatic said so. I felt extremely ashamed of myself, and I felt as if Benny could see the remorse in my eyes because he actually gave me a friendly little bark which meant, It's all right, Shakila, I forgive you. Then I looked up at the old couple who were staring at me as if I had just french kissed their dog or something. It sure was a funny sight. I just can't stop laughing each time I think of that moment and the look on their face. But I have to admit, I do feel wonderful, as if I have made peace with all the dogs in the world. I was probably 12 years old when my Islamic Studies teacher told me that our prophet hated dogs and she even quoted a hadeeth saying Abdullah (b. Umar) reported: "Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) ordered the killing of dogs and we would send (men) in Medina and its corners and we did not spare any dog that we did not kill, so much so that we killed the dog that accompanied the wet she-camel belonging to the people of the desert." (Sahih Muslim, Book 010, Number 3811).

I guess many Muslims don't have the ability to think and I am really ashamed to admit that perhaps I was one of them too. Why else would I actually hate poor little innocent dogs just because I was told to do so? I guess it means that Muslims really do not have a mind of their own and are totally incapable of thinking rationally and logically, and those who actually dare to do so end up being like me. An Apostate of Islam.

Enjoy your new life Shakila, I'm so happy for you. Yes, there is a Heaven, and I hope that one day you'll find out that there is a God and that he loves you so much. He wants you to call Him Abba (Father).

That's a really nice post to help explain what one escapes from when brave enough become an apostate, and to provide an opportunity for understanding of the reality rather than the theory of it all. Thanks!

What a shame that Muslims think dogs are unclean or whatever it is, just because Mohammed said so. Dogs are wonderful. Though I'm more of a cat person myself I love dogs. They are so friendly and loving.

As for your cousin's wedding, I hope she will be happy in spite of the misery that seems to permeate all of life in Islam. Especially for the women.

Humankind's partnership with dogs goes back to the origin of our species. I own (actually, she owns me) a thirteen pound mini-poodle who brightens up my world. She is a faithful companion and loyal friend.

How can any group of humans reject our fellowship with do dogs? It can't be that the primitive prejudgices of a desert bandit who liked to molest little will overwhelm our natural affinity for dogs.

The dog has been friends with humankind since God (the real God) created Adam. In the Hebrew Bible we read how when God made the animals He brought them to Adam so that Adam could name them. Whatever Adam called the animal would be its name.

In Hebrew, the word for "dog" is "kelev," כלב. This is because, as Adam called him, he is the animal who loves you (and does everything else) "b'kol lev" - with his whole heart: בכל לב!

A while back, I stumbled on an article, The Persecuted Animals in Pakistan. (The writer, by the way, sounds rather liberal and would probably be a PC MC defender of Muslims: so he's not likely to be an "Islamophobe" with a bone to pick against Muslims.)

The writer begins by saying:

The persecuted animals in Pakistan find themselves in a country where animal welfare is an "alien concept"1. Where there is a lack of human rights there is no chance of there being organised animal welfare and that would seem to be the situation in Pakistan. I am concerned for all the animals in Pakistan both wild and domesticated but, of course, I focus on cats that sadly have found themselves living in this country.

Then he notes that while in Pakistan, animals are not cared for well, in neighboring India, in fact animals, and cats in particular, are well cared for. The writer, being a PC MC, of course, never connects the simple dot to explain this disparity: Islam. Western PC MCs, you see, have this strange deficiency in their brains, rendering them incapable of the simple mental operation of connecting dots when it comes to the problem of Islam. As Hugh Fitzgerald has said, "they lack the mental pencil to connect the dots".

The writer of the article also notes an interesting historical fact:

The central animal protection legislation of the country [i.e., Pakistan] was drawn up by the British during the time of the British Empire. It extended to the whole of "British India" (i.e. before the creation of the state of Pakistan). I am talking about the The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1890 (Act). Yes 1890!

Oh, those cruel British Colonialists!

In fact, nearly everywhere the West "intruded" to colonize Islamic regions, the societies benefited (at least, as much as is possible, given the general social disease of Islam). The 150 years during which the French colonized Algeria, for example, brought a brief window of fresh air and freedom and cosmopolitan progress to that Islamic hell-hole. And, of course, Muslims worked hard over the decades to build up a resistance and finally recoiled in a protracted Jihad against the French, filled with horrendous violence, that finally kicked out the French by the end of the 1950s (who meantime had been terribly fatigued by World War 2 and by their problems in Vietnam).

The Islamic treatment of animals is one subcategory out of thousands of the many-splendored disease of Islam, one which I have not spent much time studying, since a person has only so much time in this life to spend, and I've been concentrating on the more pressing danger Muslims present to humans (in addition to trying to have time to enjoy other pleasures of life blithely and utterly unassociated with the grotesquely pulsating, ghoulishly hideous cancer of Islam).

I have always suspected, however, that

a) in Islamic countries there are few if any services to help animals in terms of injuries, welfare, adopting strays, helping ferals (the wild dogs and cats who live "homeless")

b) in Islamic countries it is culturally encouraged for children to torture animals, particularly the "homeless" cats and dogs (and probably birds and reptiles, etc): in the West, we regard such children as potentially cultivating a psychology that tends toward sociopathic behavior, and most serial killers have been found to have led childhoods where they first "experimented" on torturing and killing animals, before later they "graduated" to killing humans

d) the ritual of beheading goats, lamb and cows for Ramadan, where children are "initiated", is, aside from its ostensible liturgical/cultural function, a psychocultural way to cultivate "practice" on beheading humans and in generally inuring the Muslim child to the brutality of violence in order to prepare him for Islamic manhood and the life of the never-ending "Struggle".This general subcategory -- animal abuse in Islam -- is an area that needs further study and documentation.

I just found this blog, after a particularly delightful (I am being very sarcastic here) interaction with a Muslim man who complained about a neighbour's dog. Our dogs were running together, and her dog (a puppy) playfully circled his son, and then ran back to us. There was no agression at all, and the boy was smiling until rabid, foaming-at-the mouth dad showed up. BTW, we were there first, and in complete compliance with the regulations. I told my neighbour's daughter to get out of there - she is only a teenager - and that I would handle this. I am in my early 30s, a law school graduate, and much better equipped to deal with people like that than a 16-year-old.

In the course of the next 5 minutes he told me that I was a whore who doesn't deserve to live, made rude gestures, threatened to poison my dog, and wanted to know my name. I told him to mind his language, and that screaming was no way to get anything accomplished. When he started following me home, I had had enough, and told him that I would call 911 and file charges for ad hominem attacks, harrassment and bullying. In all honesty, I was tempted to punch him in the face.

However, back to the topic above: I very much agree with you, Hesperado, on the points made above. I've for violence. From its very inception, the movement was based on violence and depended on it for its expansion. Of course, Christianity also had many violent episodes (e.g., Crusades) in its history, but Jesus certainly never committed murder nor did he condone violence. Muhammed, on the other hand, was a warrior who fought and killed in the name of religion.

Frankly, I don't think much has improved. The biggest issue is that Islam has not had a proper modern exegesis, and is still stuck with literal interpretations of religious texts. I recently read a fascinating book about the increase of Islamic extremism and violence in Southeast Asia. It's called "The Talibanization of Southeast Asia: Losing the War on Terror to Islamist Extremists". The author is a political science professor in Singapore.

I never knew this! Are Muslims actually asked to hate dogs? Mohammad (piss be upon him) was simply sick in the head!! How can 1.5 billion fools consider him to be an ideal man? Had I been a dogmatist, I would have called him Satan's messenger on earth..

In Indian Puranic cannon there's a Puran (sort of Gospel) called Bhavishya Puran which describes Muhammad (Mahamada) as a devil incarnate who is born to destroy righteousness and pollute people's mind by creating a false religion of hatred..Though Purans are highly fictitious, I fully concur with this assessment. Incidentally charlatans like Zakir Naik misuses the name of this Puran to claim that Muhammad's arrival has been "predicted" in Hinduism!

It's a funny thing... there are a lot of cult leaders who have disliked dogs and told their followers to kill them, either saying they are dirty or that they serve witches. It's one of those signs that a cult leader is going over the edge. The Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa, demanded that his followers kill their dogs and destroy their bean supply... and the next thing you know, he was burning both Christian and non-Christian people from the neighboring Wyandot tribal village as witches.

First of all I wanted to say that you are a precious jewel. You are strong and brave, you have come a long way to be where you are. You will find peace if you keeping looking. May YAHOVAH, the God of Israel protect you and save you from your enemies. If you get a chance, take a look at this blog: http://hoshanarabbah.org/blog/

I have a beautiful Siberia husky who loves me so much it is too much some times … she jumps,lick my feet and fallows me around every where. She is always excited to see me … she starts to go in circles in distressed matter and makes sad noises when I cry or upset or she misunderstandings playing roughly with my children as me being abused so she freaks out … it is so funny some times.

I love my dog so much … some times I like to spend times with her, more then spend time with my own family …